mental quality which seeks the joyful
or comic facts of life and ignores its
sad and tragic aspects. The zest of
spirit which one finds in Shakespeare,
for instance, is not a blind optimism
thoughtlessly escaping from the shad-
ows into the sunshine. On the con-
trary, it is drawn by a deep instinct to
study the most perplexing problems
of character, and to drop its plummets
into the blackest abysses of experi-
ence. Literature deals habitually with
the most sombre side of the human
lot, and finds its richest material in
those awful happenings which invest
the history of every race with such
pathetic interest; and yet literature,
in its great moments, overflows with
vitality, zest of spirit, freshness of
spirit! There is no contradiction in
all this; for the vitality which per-
vades great art is not dependent upon

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v?